After my tank crashed and I lost all my tiger barbs, I've decided to completely strip down and redo my ten gallon as a betta tank. One of my local places recently got in some half moons, and they are just stunningly beautiful. The downside, of course, is that they're $30 each. Petco has some halfmoons for half the price, but they're not nearly as pretty, although to be fair they are quite a bit smaller (and therefore younger with less finnage I assume?).

I'm also going to take this opportunity to do some real aquascaping. My tank in its previous incarnation wasn't bad looking, but it was your typical beginner tank with fake plants, bright neon gravel, and whatever odd bits of decor stood out when I was in the store. I'm going to buy some more natural looking gravel, add some wood and a rock or two and get some live plants. It's a big step up for me but I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

I'd like to get a few tankmates for the betta, but I'm not sure what exactly. A few otos or cories perhaps, or some tetras, maybe, but my water is quite hard and ten gallons isn't really big enough for the large impressive school that I would like to have. I've seen bettas being housed with rainbowfish at my lfs, so I was thinking about them. Don't know much about them, really, and I'm not sure if my tank is large enough even if i limit myself to the smaller ones. Any thoughts or suggestions here would be most welcome.

Planning on updating this thread with pics of my progress as I go. The hardest part, as always, will be taking the time to set stuff up right and not rushing out to buy the fish before the tank is ready. Anyway, should be fun!

Any fish that are not nippy or have long, flowing fins would be good. I have heard that cories make good tankmates for bettas. Make sure that the plants you use are silk and not plastic. Plastic will tear your betta's delicate fins.

1) Don't skimp on lighting for live plants. Aim for at least 2 watts per gallon and get a 6700K bulb.
2) With a halfmoon their fins make them slower and more apt to be nipped at by other fish. I'd go with some bottom dwellers like cories. If you do cories you will need sand substrate. Play sand is cheap and usually inert (test first though) and can be found at Home Depot or the like. Ottos are also good, but need an established tank to thrive, and they can be finicky eaters so I wouldn't get those at first.

I've got all the setup gear except lights. The tank was originally bought as a kit, and the hood came with two screw in incandescent bulbs. I could, I suppose, go to a hardware store and try and find a better bulb that would fit. The alternative would be to buy a new hood I guess? I'd really rather not.

hi trooper251
welcome. :)
i would say that a Betta would be fine on it's own,it dose not need the company
of other fish,it would possibly be too much for the Betta having little fish darting around.
i don't know if anyone here has had that mix of fish before. ?